Seven Sharp V The Project: How have new hosts Hilary Barry and Jeremy Wells rated?

Hilary Barry and Jeremy Wells, new hosts of Seven Sharp. Photo / TVNZ

New Seven Sharp hosts Hilary Barry and Jeremy Wells have made a solid start to their 7pm careers, but the audience has dipped during its first month on air.

The pair filled the 7pm co-hosting spots left vacant by Mike Hosking and Toni Street's surprise resignation at the end of last year.

The show returned to air on February 5, with an average audience of 418,000 that week.

It dropped to 350,000 last week, a decline of 16 per cent.

It's still ahead of 7pm rival The Project, which had 143,000 viewers tune in during Seven Sharp's first week back, and 159,000 last week.

The rival show is hosted by Kanoa Lloyd, Jesse Mulligan and Jeremy Corbett, who on Friday was announced to replace Josh Thomson.

Seven Sharp's average viewership over the past five weeks was 367,000 compared with the The Project's 150,000.

The new hosts are proving more popular with viewers in the key commercial demographic of ages 25-54 than their predecessors.

Barry and Wells drew an average audience of 94,000 viewers in that bracket over the last five weeks since their debut, compared to Hosking and Street's average of 85,000 viewers during the same period last year.

But Seven Sharp dipped 29 per cent in the demographic from 115,000 in its first week to 82,000.

Insiders say the new pair were tasked with growing the number of younger viewers.

Seven Sharp executive producer Alistair Wilkinson isn't fazed by the show's initial decline and told the Herald on Sunday the programme's "year-on-year performance is on par with previous years".

"We had a huge start to the year. A lot of viewers tuned in our first week back, curious to see how Hilary and Jeremy would get on. It's safe to say that they're enjoying the new combination."

He says the pair have put their own stamp on the show and viewers are loving it.

"It's funny, thought-provoking and entertaining."

Josh Thomson (left), Jesse Mulligan and Kanoa Lloyd​, hosts of The Project. Photo / Supplied

But while Seven Sharp remains the most viewed current affairs programme in the 7pm slot, MediaWorks remains happy with The Project's performance, which has grown its audience year-on-year.

In a statement, a spokesperson said: "We know that Kiwis are getting behind The Project by the huge response we had to our coverage of Fertility Week earlier this month, as thousands of New Zealanders shared their journey with fertility under the hashtag #mybabystory and started a national conversation."​